A skeptical left-liberal's blog, including skepticism about left-liberalism, but even more about other issues of politics. A skeptical look at Gnu Atheism, religion, social sciences, more. And me? I am who I am... more later...

August 20, 2012

Reporters to be paid by the page read at new #NOLA?

There's been speculation for
several years within the newspaper world that some newspaper might eventually,
in its online version, base at least a part of reporters' salaries based on how
many page hits their stories get.

And, now, this job ad
at the "new" New Orleans Times-Picayune makes me wonder if that day
isn't now upon us.

When I see the word
"metrics" for a position like this, especially with a newspaper that
has just decided to become a non-daily in its hardcover operations, that’s the
first thought that comes to mind. This line from the job's description only
reinforces that:

As the Staff Performance Measurement and
Development Specialist, you will be responsible for developing and implementing
performance objectives to keep members of the team motivated and our
organization on target and productive. Working closely with the Director of
Digital Operations in this high profile, consultative role, you will leverage
your strong knowledge of content objectives and data analysis tools to shape
actionable goals and metrics for performance.

Let’s translate and unpack that,
while noting that, per the job ad, this is a newly-created position.

Here's what it really means:

The person in this role will
monitor page views.

The person in this role will use
tools like Google Analytics to see where such page views are coming from, for
different stories, different reporters, etc.

The person in this role will, in
conjuction with the director of digital operations, discuss how to use SEO
keywords in the body of the story and SEO search population boxes,
Twitter-trending words in headlines, etc., to maximize page hits.

The person in this role will “train,”
that is, push reporters and online editors toward doing this.

The person in this role will use
these metrics to “motivate” the “team,” whomever the team is, that is, will use
metrics to tell reporters and editors, if you’re not on target, you’re not
here.

In other words, NOLA is now going
to be Demand Media. Or maybe even something worse.

That, in turn, explains why there's still no paywall at NOLA. Because they know that nobody would want to pay.